Mac Daddy and the Mini Macs' Mega Trip Report '08

[DonDuck]

Wow, what a trip! Simply gorgeous pics, too. More, please.

[Hakuna Makarla]

Please tell us there is lots more!!! the pics are amazing and so much fun going thru your trip ! I hope you got lots more of new york!!!

[Spidergrrrl]

Oooh, fantastic trip report! What an amazing trip you had with your kids.

[Mac Daddy]

Part VI - New York and Philadelphia:


Picking up where I left off, (if you're still following the saga) we had just floated past the Statue of Liberty, which I wasn't able to get tickets for as it was so late in the day. We only had time for one stop, and I really wanted the kids to see Ellis Island...







For my wife and I, at least one set of grandparents on either side came through Ellis Island. My grandfather on my mom's side came from Hungary in the early 1920's. The luggage and clothing looked almost identical to those found in the display as you enter the building...



A few years ago, my mom sent in a donation to help refurbish the island, and my grandfather's name is on the list of immigrants on the memorial wall...




In those days, you packed what you had, usually into one trunk, and you stepped off the boat and were led to this room...










My wife's great grandfather came over from Italy first, and sent for the family later. Her grandmother would tell us stories of growing up on an island not too far from Sicily. She would watch the light from the volcano on Stromboli at night. My wife's grandparents and mine struggled for years trying to learn English after they arrived. They got jobs, headed straight into the depression, and still came through it with hard work, and finally moved to California. I just wanted my kids to see first hand how you could start with a trunk of clothes and a few dollars and eventually accomplish almost anything imaginable in this country. Uncle Tony, after moving to California, opened Frantone's pizza in Norwalk, Cerritos and Downey. His kids are driving Jaguars now. And his father came to this country with a trunk and a fist full of dollars. What a country, huh?


A couple more shots of New York...


There were several "waterfalls" around the harbor as some artist had recently designed these for....something. You may have seen them on some of the morning shows a couple weeks ago:




The older buildings in New York are absolutely fascinating to me. I hope to return some day and photograph them in detail. Here's one that was directly behind our hotel...




Speaking of our hotel, we were upgraded again for some reason, and we ended up with a fairly nice view of the Hudson from our room:




We stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown, and I kind of forgot how expensive things are in Manhattan. Just to PARK overnight was SIXTY-FIVE BUCKS!

There was a wonderful bike trail and park just down from our hotel with a nice view of the sun going down behind New Jersey...




Here's another shot of the sunset but from the hotel lobby...




The next day, we set off for Philadelphia. After fighting our way into the Holland Tunnel (Funny how everyone waves with their middle finger in New York...what a friendly town!), we made the drive to Philly in about three hours. We stayed at another Embassy Suites, and this one had a rather nice view of Logan Square...




And at night...




Just down from the hotel is the Museum of Art:




...which of course is known world wide for one thing in particular.


ROCKY!




So, of course we had to run up the steps. (Cue music...)


GONNA FLY NOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW....




FLYING HIGH NOOOOOOWWWWW......




FLYYYYYYYY........



FLYYYYYYYY.........








Okay....so at least my daughter had the right idea. No one had to bribe Rocky with a Frappachino.


Granted, it was in the 90's and humid. So...we set off to see the rest of Philadelphia before leaving for Virginia...




We were going to spend some time in Independence Hall, but we found out you had to sign up...and pay for...the tour, and the information on how to do this was not forthcoming. So....off to Starbucks. I explained what happened there from outside the building before we left.





Click here for Part VII (Virginia and Washington DC)

[Wendygirl]

This is just the greatest trip! Loved the sunset from the lobby.

[Princess Buttercup]

This is one of my favorite non -Disney trip reports ever!


Thanks for showing us all pictures of many parts of the country that some of us have never seen in person!


And having your hilarious kids in the shots is an added bonus!

[duckiedianne]

Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

We went on pretty much every coaster in the park...with the exception of two. These two....were totally and completely insane. The MOST insane of these is a four hundred and twenty foot monster called "Top Thrill Dragster"...

So get this: You take off and hit 120 miles an hour in FOUR seconds, shoot straight up...
...hang precariously looking down from 420 feet in the air and then....
you come down. And the best part of all: All they give you is a lap bar.



No thank you.

The other behemoth that we just couldn't work up enough courage for was the Millenium Force. Built eight years ago, this guy leaves Goliath looking like a midget. It broke 10 world records when it opened. This 6,595-foot long coaster includes 310-foot, 169-foot and 182-foot tall hills, a 300-foot drop at a near vertical 80 degree angle, two dark tunnels and three overbanked turns. Tempting...but something about being perched that high in the air with nothing but Lake Erie below you made the kids say no. Otherwise, of COURSE I would have gone on it! :

AHH!!! You went all the way to Cedar Point and you didn't go on Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster?!?! I went to Cedar Point 2 years ago and we went on both of them and they were awesome!! We did front row seats too!!

[Hakuna Makarla]

I love the rocky pics man what an amazing trip!!! Keep it coming please. this really is an amazing trip report!! How lucky for you all to do so many places at once .

[lou_mom]

I have got to tell you how jealous of you I am. To see all that you have down is amazing. I am sure that in the future your kids will be delighted in all the memories you four are creating together. Keep the report coming. I almost hate to see your trip end. I wish you could post all the pictures. I am sure they are amazing.

[MTNGIRL]

What a wonderful trip! I'm sure it will give you memories to last a life time. Thank you for sharing such fabulous pictures with us.

[kirbilicious]

Awesome report! You seem to be a little off on this though:

Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

We were going to spend some time in Independence Hall, but we found out you had to sign up...and pay for...the tour, and the information on how to do this was not forthcoming.

You only have to pay for Independence Hall if you're reserving tickets in advance. Getting tickets for the same day are completely free.

[Mac Daddy]

So after a two month delay.....I'm back! (Things got a wee bit crazy during the rest of July....and August....and the beginning of September....)

But I just felt like I had to finish off this...seemingly never ending thread.

So...with that in mind, here's the last section.


Part VII - Virginia and DC


After Philadelphia, we were off to visit some friends who live outside of Leesburg Virginia. A storm was moving in the night we arrived, and the sky lit up above the farm house:





Storms were still moving through on the following morning...







At this point I'm going to combine a bit of what we did last year (as I haven't posted those photos yet), with what we did this year. Our friends live not too far from Washington DC, so we covered a good deal of Washington last year...

First of all...it turned out that our friends had a connection to Senator John Thune from South Dakota. So they made a call and were able to get us a tour of the Capitol Building. John, by the way, turned out to be one of the nicest guys we have ever met. He was very down to earth, and even though we were not from his state, he took time out of his busy day to get to know us and to set us up with this wonderful tour. Here he is signing some autographs for the kids...




And here is one of the mini-macs getting a feel for life as a US Senator...




Then it was off to the underground tram thing which connects the Russell Senate Building to the Capitol.




There were several old photgraphs in the waiting area...




We saw quite a few congressmen and aides on our way, but no Hillary or Obama...




The tour of the Capitol was absolutely fascinating. We were allowed to go up to the balcony of the Senate Chamber, but we had to leave all of our cameras and cell phones downstairs. It took extra time to get up there as some protesters had caused havoc that morning by screaming about having a muslim give the prayer to begin the Senate meeting and they had to close everything down. After we got up there, we listened to John McCain making a case for funding in Iraq. This was the Summer of 07, which is, I think, before the surge.

After listening to the debate for some time, it was back downstairs to finish our tour.




Someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Supreme Court met in this room in the Capitol building before moving down the street when the new building was built.




The dome is incredible. When you look straigt up, there are two sets of balconies. The top balcony is the smaller circle near the top. According to our guide, only congressmen and senators are allowed to go up there.




I recognized almost all the paintings...




After the tour, we left the Russell Buidling and walked back over to the exterior of the capitol....







...before setting off all over the mall. On our way to the White House, we visited parts of the Smithsonian...






and the National Archives...

(Sorry about the quality of the shots. I only had my Fugi point and shoot and they wouldn't allow flash....)



The Magna Charta...




The Constitution...



The Declaration of Independence...



We also visited the National Air and Space Museum...




The White House...






And the Lincoln memorial...




The sun was setting when we arrived at the memorial, and this part of Washington is stunning at night. This was my first try with HDR. It didn't come out quite like I hoped, but it was kind of interesting putting it together. I'll have to get some more practice...




Again, to me, this was much more impressive at night...










THIS year, we also visited Mt. Vernon. Here I had my Canon G9 instead of my Fugi finepix from last year:
















All in all, we had an incredible time. Soon it was time to say goodbye to our friends in Virginia again and come home. I really love their place. Miles of horse country with deer in the woods, fireflies at night, and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance...



I hope we get to go back next year!


If you are still reading this, thanks for sticking with me to the end!


THE END!

[PiG_GuRl]

Go Virginia! Your pictures are beautiful. I love the sky!

Awesome TR all together!

[Wendygirl]

Thanks for finishing this up. Back in '97 I went with my daughters 6th grade class for the Washington DC trip and then two and half years ago I went on a tour with a friend to many of these same places that you were at. There is so much to see, photograph and learn in DC. Your friends house is lovely and it would be so nice to live in the country like that.

[penguinsoda]

Your night pictures are especially awesome!! Hey, it may have taken a while, but the wait was totally worth it! Great pictures! I'd love to see the Smithsonian someday!